Incredibles 2

A lazy day of work movie, this one bites of the tally for 2019...

The latest Pixar animated movie, and highly anticipated after the great fun of the first one, our superhero family is back in action.

The Incredibles, a family of superheroes, pursue the Underminer. Although he escapes with stolen bank money, they stop his drill tank from destroying Metroville's City Hall with help from Frozone. The government, concerned by the collateral damage, shuts down the Superhero Relocation Program, leaving the Parrs without financial assistance from agent Rick Dicker. After Violet's date Tony Rydinger discovers her superhero identity, Dicker erases her from Tony's memory. Lucius informs Bob and Helen of an offer from Winston Deavor, the owner of DevTech, a telecommunications corporation. Winston and his sister Evelyn propose a publicity stunt to regain public trust in superheroes.

Winston chooses Helen to spearhead the stunt under her old identity, Elastigirl, as she causes less property damage than Bob, and provides the Parr family with a new home. While Helen is away, Bob struggles with his new role as a stay-at-home parent: Dash has trouble with math, Violet becomes withdrawn after Tony unintentionally stands her up due to his memory wipe, and Jack-Jack wreaks havoc with his burgeoning superpowers. Bob brings Jack-Jack to Edna Mode, who develops a suit that controls his abilities. Meanwhile, Elastigirl captures the Screenslaver, a supervillain who projects hypnotic images using television screens. She unmasks him as a deliveryman with no recollection of his actions.

At a party celebrating the Screenslaver's arrest, Winston announces a summit of world leaders to legalize superheroes, hosted aboard his luxury ship. Unsettled by the ease with which she captured the Screenslaver, Elastigirl realizes that he was controlled by a pair of mind-control goggles. Evelyn forces the goggles onto Elastigirl, revealing herself as the mastermind behind the Screenslaver. Evelyn explains that she has hated superheroes since Gazerbeam and Fironic failed to rescue her father from being killed by burglars when she was a child. She plans to sabotage her brother's summit and cause a catastrophe that will tarnish the reputation of superheroes, ensuring they remain outlawed forever. Using a hypnotized Elastigirl, she lures Mr. Incredible into a trap, then sends other hypnotized superheroes to subdue the Parr children. Frozone tries to protect them, but is overwhelmed and placed under Evelyn's control.

 

Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack escape with the help of the Incredibile, a high-tech car once owned by Bob during his time as Mr. Incredible, and reach Winston's ship. On board, the hypnotized Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone recite a vindictive manifesto on air to paint superheroes as a threat. They subdue the ship crew, aim the ship at Municiberg, and destroy the controls. Jack-Jack removes Elastigirl's goggles, and she frees Mr. Incredible and Frozone. The Parrs and Frozone release the other mind-controlled superheroes by destroying their goggles. With Mr. Incredible swimming underwater to turn the rudder and Frozone creating layers of ice, they slow the ship and prevent it crashing into the city. Evelyn escapes in a jet, but is captured by Elastigirl. Superheroes around the world regain legal status.
Later, Tony accompanies Violet and her family to a movie. Outside the theater, the Parrs spot a high-speed pursuit between police and gunmen. Violet leaves Tony at the theater and promises to return in time for the film, before the Parrs give chase in a refurbished Incredibile.

It was indeed a movie of great fun, especcially the scene with Jack-Jack facing off against a raccoon, but in general it didn't come to the level of the first one.  Perhaps another victim of superhero tireness?  I'm not saying it is a bad movie or so, but the hilarity of the first one is replaced for me by laugh moments at times.

Never the less, a decent couch movie for sure...

On the Painting Desk 75: adieu 2018

The last one for this year, and 2018 was an okay year in amounts painted.

The desk is still filled with MESBG figures, rotating in and out as I do work on various entries.

So that`s it for the year, next year we`ll be back with the debut of 2019...

Stepping into 2019, the goals!

A new year is upon us, and as a result it's time to set some new goals for the coming 12 months on the hobby front.

Perhaps I should make a goal of not changing them during the course of the year though, but you know, attention span of a goldfish...

I`m going to focus for the coming year on two game systems as the main targets to paint up for, because 2020 will see me moving and that cutting down on hobby time as well, so I want as much as possible ready for both my Emperor's Children and my Middle Earth during the new year.

To that end, the "eternal" list of Emperor's Children will be pushed as close to the 10k points of  painted models as possible, as I still have a LOT of them to restore, unless GW keeps screwing up 40k as they are now. Then I'll be selling of the Emperor's Children and get a new gaming pc instead...

On the other hand are the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game forces, aka Lord of the Rings.  I`ve set a goal of painting up at least three armies of them during the year, and hopefully a lot more.  The game should see play soonish, including introducing Dolly to it, so you can also expect a lot of battle reports about this over the months, probably with YouTube clips and all.

On that note, I`m also aiming at certainly a 700 points force of Rohirrim, for Armies on Parade but also to enter even a tournament with them, see a bit later in this post!

I`ve once again entered the AHPC as well, which started a fortnight ago as you read this.  It`s themed in a Tolkien way this year, right up my alley, and decided to not paint anything else bar Tolkien figures from the 21st of december up until the closure of the challenge.  So that might help with the above a lot as well...


On smaller painting projects, I have a couple listed as well.  I`m going to really finish my Blood Bowl team this year first of all.  Apart from that, those last Crisis models need to be done, and I`m looking at painting all the Burrows and Badgers models I have lying around, as that is a game Dolly and me will be playing frequently at home as well.

And I`m planning on painting all the playing pieces of my LOTR risk, which are about 15mm in size... but that`s no goal per se hence I didn`t stick it in the sidebar.

All while attending at least 5 wargame conventions, events or mega-battles again this year... which is going to be maybe include some tournaments, as I'm planning in participating in one or two of the Flemish Hobbit League, who runs Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game events.  My target is the one in Antwerp on the 11th of November.

On the more "generic" front, the targets have been set as well for movies, series, animes and books.  Like I stated in the 2018 overview yesterday, the first three have been raised by 5 as I smashed that goal the past year, while the latter dropped down 5 as I just didn`t get around to it the past year...

But that`s it for the coming year, not to immensely an amount of targets to try and obtain, yet with enough variety on the painting front to hopefully prevent burn-outs or "colour boredom" while painting.

Let`s see where we get...

Haul Report 162: The Xmas Edition

Hohoho, seems Santa thinks I have been a good boy this year!

Which of course, I was, but that is next to the point ;-)

With the holiday of cheer and presents upon us, the amount of loot has increased exponentially this week, so let's look what fell into my lap.

On christmas eve, me and the Dolly went for dinner at my parents, and after the exchange of gifts I had some very nice items for the collection.

The Middle Earth Army Book has arrived, so now we can play our games using points values and statistics as needed.

More MESBG as the Dolly got me the Gandalf dice.  I`m seriously planning on getting every set GW releases from now on, they are pretty and not to confusing by having only a typical icon on the 6.

The Children of Hurin hardcover was also amongst the presents received, as was my new calendar for 2019, which might be, distracting, at times hehehehe.

The day after, it was off to the in-laws bearing more gifts, and coming back with another pile of loot.

A scarf, inhouse "shoe socks", an english bulldog agenda, a gift certificate for De Sleghte bookstore, The Adventures of Tom Bombadil book, and for MESBG a box of Haradrim raiders and the mighty Mumak!!!

I already used up half of the voucher, so I still got value on it remaining, while having added two books to the collection.  One Tolkien book I didn`t have, and one that caught my intrest due to the television series.

What a great christmas indeed, ho ho hoooo!

Looking at the 2018 paint numbers

The one set of goals that I want to look at a more in depth from the past year, is comparing the 2018 paint numbers versus those of 2017.

The past year was the first full year I returned to the hobby, as it was april last year when I dusted of the brushes.

Two things where immediatly visible: I painted less figures, being 609 versus 626, and the first half was a far higher turnout then the second.

The reason for both being a change in working life and all the related time management adaptions that come with it.  Now for 2019, there is also Noshi's change in professional life, so further adaptations are kicking in.  Add to that the house we want to buy by the end of the year, and that will mean 2019 will drop further in finished models I expect.

Now, the biggest increase in painted numbers the past year have been the 28mm category.  While the pure historical infantry dropped slightly, the cavalry went up, together with the addition of fantasy due to MESBG models coming into play.
I do expect 28mm going to become the biggest part of my painting once again for the next year, just due to that.

The second biggest category was 32mm, but a drop has been noticeabke.  This is mainly because last year I needed to get my forces up and running to play, while now it is just a matter of fine tuning and expanding.  More will be added in 2019 as I will be painting up Noshi's army as well as  pushing the Emperor's Children to as much done as possible.

But the other categories are going to be largely neglected I fear, except perhaps 15mm if I get round to painting my LOTR Risk playing pieces.  But the only other things that will hapen is a lot of "liquidation" painting.  Finishing models to sell them off and contribute to a new pc for when we go to the new place.

The past year already saw a serious drop in 6mm, while the other scales weren't touched upon post the analogue challenge from last year.  I doubt much will happen with them as well come 2019 unless as said earlier to sell off.

Which reminds me I really should start sorting through piles and boxes to get into that asap once AHPC9 ends in march... which will be sooner upon us then expected, seeing how time flies these days.

I guess 2019 will be even more streamlined as such in painting figures, as it will really become the year of the clean up.  In an ideal world, I'll end up with on the one hand my Emperor's Children, and on the other hand my Tolkien collection.  But all the rest should ideally become finished at last and vacated to other hobbyists...

But all this blabbering aside, let's look at the numbers themselves, comparing 2018 to 2017.  The first number is 2018, the second 2017, and then the difference:

Total finished: 609 vs 626: -17

6mm Sci-fi Infantry: 46 vs 120: -74
6mm Sci-fi Cavalry: 14 vs 20: - 6
6mm Sci-fi Vehicles: 20 vs 21: - 1

6mm Sci-fi Scenery: 1 vs 0: + 1

Total 6mm finished: 81 vs 161: - 80 models

10mm Historical Infantry: 31 vs 0: +31
10mm Historical Cavalry: 0 vs 16: - 16
10mm Historical Vehicle: 1 vs 0: + 1

Total 10mm finished: 32 vs 16: + 16 models

15mm Fantasy Infantry: 12 vs 0: + 12
15mm Fantasy Monster: 1 vs 0: + 1
15mm Scenery: 1 vs 0: + 1

Total 15mm finished: 14 vs 0: + 14 models

28mm Historical Infantry: 145 vs 163: - 18
28mm Historical Cavalry: 16 vs 5: + 11
28mm Historical Animals: 0 vs 10: - 10
28mm Fantasy Infantry: 38 vs 0: + 38
28mm Scenery: 36 vs 1: + 35

Total 28mm finished: 235 vs 213: + 22 models

30mm Heroic Infantry: 195 vs 246: - 51
30mm Heroic Cavalry: 7 vs 16: - 9
30mm Heroic Vehicle: 8 vs 5: + 3
30mm Heroic Monster: 0 vs 3: - 3
30mm Heroic Scenery: 7 vs 0: + 7

Total 30mm Heroic finished:  217 vs 270: - 53 models

So there we have it, after 2 years I still haven't touched 20mm, the past year was the first in 15mm due to the AHPC, and the 6mm followed by 30mm heroic caused the biggest drops.

Let's come back next year and see how 2019 will compare againt 2018 now shall we!

The 2018 Goals: How did it go?

And thus the year comes to an end, and it is time to look back on 2018 and see how the set goals went.

Though over the course of the year, a couple of the ones I started out with where deleted and replaced with other things...

Looking at the sidebar for that, perhaps the most obvious is the dropping of the ACW OrBat for Fredericksburg.  After completing the Irish Brigade and taking her to war at the club, the period dropped dead and after a months long dryspell I just sold off the army and replaced it on the "eternal" objective list with my Emperor's Children for the rest of the past year.
While I didn`t get the subfactions (being the Slaaneshi demons and the Renegades) to the aimed 1500 and 500 points respectively yet, the whole force is hopefully clocking off on 10k painted at least in the future.

On that painting level, the past year I finished a nice heap of 609 models, albeit that is only around the same amount then the shorter year of my return 2017, where I painted 626 models.  But that included a lot of 6mm and way more free time as my professional situation changed drastically the past year.

I did obtain, and actually double, my AHPC8 goal of 750, ending there with 1583 points instead... but come the big holiday period and a lot of travelling, paint numbers went from averaging 50 models a month to about 20 as a result.

The Blood Bowl just bit the bullet, after the initial 4 models at the beginning of the year, I didn`t get round painting up more for the rest of the year, but they'll be on the to-do list soonish to get it all out of the way.

The Crisis models are also going to be rounded out the next year, as I stopped painting them the moment the deadline for the Crisis magazine was upon us.  And I got another coverpicture for that magazine in that time.

A couple of "failures" on the list are due to total loss of intrest.  The Tombstone warband, the Age of Sigmar game, the Tau Empire and the DBA... due to a variety of factors I`ve lost intrest in either the game or the models / setting over the course of the year, and decided to search for new homes for the models.  That way, I could get some more figures for things that did intrest me, but that is for tomorrow's 2019 goal post.  The 6mm is another story, as I still want to repaint my gashapon for FWC, but I ended up with painting an epic version of my Emperor's Children first.

To round it all out on the wargaming level, I smoothly achieved the 5 wargame events and conventions this year, totaling 7, due in part to a lot of mega games being hosted, of which I picked up a few to join in.

Other obtained goals this year where the movies, the series and the animes at respectively 54, 18 and 35.  I crushed the numbers so to say, as me and Noshi dare to binge evenings.  As a result, I`ll be pulling those three's numbers up with 5 for the next year. On the other end, the books.  I just haven`t come around to much "bus reading" for reasons, and as a result this was a struggle.  Next year, that number is coming down with 5 instead... because while I totalled 28 in the end, this was mainly due to some "forced reading" came september.

On a blog level, it has been a year of two milestones: I broke the 3000 post wall, AND more importantly the 1 MILLION views wall, thanks a lot to all those people reading my ramblings!

What's more, in the all time top 10 of posts, there have been 3 new entries this year, for the first time in a while.  In february, the French Indian Mega Battle entered the top 10, and in oktober the Armies on Parade did the same.  November then saw the show report of Crisis 2018 thunder into the top 10.  There should have been FOUR entries actually, as the 40k Mega Battle has scored higher in reading numbers then the last three current entries in that list, but for some reason of obscureness, blogger isn`t registering it in there... odd.

But there we are, the end tally of the year 2018, all in all an okay but not excellent year in achieved hobby goals, but it could have been far worse instead...

And now, all the bars on the side can be reset and the 2019 goals, which I'll be talking about tomorrow or so, can be placed!

What I painted in December 2018

The final month of the year, and that means two things...

First off, that I'll be closing off my 2018 painting tallies now, and secondly that the AHPC has started again.

I managed to get one of the 34 "open" spots for that contest, and as the theme is Fellowship this year, and because that coincides with some goals I've set this year, I decided to enter ONLY with Tolkien models.

So when the contest started about two weeks ago on the 21st, everything else went to the side and the Tolkien three month paint-a-thon began, so far resulting already in the following:

For the opening post, to pledge "activeness", I went for Galadriel, as she speaks the very first line of the movie trilogy.

However, that's not all that has been painted during the month, as before the contest I did some oosies and floosies still.

Them being some "essentials" once again, in the form of two mounted Irish heartguard to serve as a noble and a champion in my Dux cavalry.  I had a large battle the 7th this month, and they where horsed up just for that purpose.

All in all, that resulted in a nice 3 models for the final month of the year.  While this doesn`t look like much, this has to do with a lot of work I`ve been doing the past week for the AHPC, painting colours in really big batches instead of small numbers as I usually do.

The total numbers are in the year oversight, but I can say I was about equal with last year in finished figures, so that's not to shabby in the end considering how my life changed over the past months.

Now to get more Tolkien done as we enter 2019...

The Best of 2018

A yearly tradition, as I look back on the geeky year and give my completely biased, subjective best off results of the past year.

Of course, many will disagree, because this is a list of totally personal taste, but heck, I never said I had mainstream tastes...

So without further ado, here we go for the award ceremony, as the year for this "runs" actually as usual from the 20th of december 2017 until the 20th of december 2018, so any last week additions (like for example, last year`s Rogue One) carries over to the next calendar year...

Best Movie: Ready Player One.  Pure nostalgia for my generation, and Gundam!  I thought the critics came down far to hard on this film to be honest, probably they where either to old to be from the 80s, or are the new generation of internet YouTube professionals (really, how the heck can those "react to" video blokes earn thousands of dollars, they aren`t even funny) who don`t get half the references.

Best Series: Star Trek Discovery.  Really, it was great for a Trek show in this era, and Jason Isaacs put down an awesome captain.

Best Perfomance: a hard one, but in the end I`m going for Peter Capaldi in the first season of The Musketeers.  His screen presence is just awesome, I miss him as the Doctor tbh... (I will always remember his Zygoth speech).

Best Book: I didn`t really read an "oh my god" book this year.  So the Burrows and Badgers rulebook for his sheer originality, which is fantastically produced.

Best Toy: by default; as I only gotten one toy figure this year, the Chibi Lunamaria for my collection of Lunamaria Hawke's

Best Anime: No Game No Life.  I really LOVED this one, and still cry myself to sleep every night for it never getting a second season.  Honorable mentions must go to some of Noshi`s "you must see that" picks, as I greatly enjoy My Hero Academia, and liked her favorite anime Miraj Nikki.

Best Game: Splendor.  A nice little boardgame that I really enjoy playing.  And am apparently quit good at

Best Videogame: I`m going with Final Fantasy online here.  I played it a lot until june, then both me and Noshi turned away from it due to time issues.  And I never gotten around to give it a go again until two weeks ago as I have so much to paint still.  Honourable mention to Pokemon Go, I keep milling those miles to stay in shape (more or less) due to it...

Best Wargame Figure: Lucius the Eternal.  It`s a horrible sculpt with subpar rules, yet I picked it for another reason.  I was to be the supreme general in the 40k mega battle, and my named character as such the overlord of the Chaos forces.  So I played every game from january to the battle with him (and some after) to make it a running up to story.

Best Music: Azim Steppes from Final Fantasy online, it has that epic choir feel that still gives a relaxing mood.

Best Trade: is there any doubt on this?  The lot of Chaos Marines I bought from Willie at TSA, 25 euros for 164 chaos marines, of which I couldn`t use 3 (the Iron Warriors warsmith and 2 sorcerers), whom I then sold for... 25 euros.  That meant I had 161 marines for free, of a lot which would otherwise have cost me 0.13 cents a figure...

Best Convention: Made in Asia 2018, the first geeky convention I attended together with Noshi, and which gave me this most awesome memorabilia...

Greatest Disappointment: The Last Jedi.  Really, to much Star Wars, it's killing the franchise...

And that is it, the best of awards from the year 2018.  I hope you can live with my selection, and feel free to comment if you do or don`t!

The world is changed

And we are off!  The 9th challenge, the second one I'm joining, and this year I'm only entering figures from Games Workshop's Middle Earth game due to the theme being Fellowship.

Now, participants are asked to enter something in the first month, and as a modest opener I decided on the character first heared in the Peter Jackson movies, the lady Galadriel.

The mighty queen of the elves, residing in the mystical woodland realm of Lothlorien, she is the bearer of Nenya, one of the three elven rings of power.

The model is her first incarnation that GW brought out over 15 years ago, but the range of metal characters remain beautiful and sublime.  I painted her over a grey undercoat for all the lightness of the white robes, drybrushing and layering as we progressed.

So here we have it, the first entry and the first modest 5 points for this challenge year...

The House with a Clock in the Walls

Last week, Noshi and me sat down to watch this fantasy family movie together, after seeing the trailer online a while ago.

Now, since I haven`t read the book, I can`t say if it`s a good adaptation or not, but with Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, it's cast looked good.

After his parents are killed in a car crash, ten-year-old Lewis Barnavelt moves to live with his uncle Jonathan. All he has left of his parents is a Magic 8-Ball they had given him. He meets Jonathan's neighbor and best friend, Florence Zimmerman.
During the night, Lewis is puzzled when he hears a ticking sound in the walls. Lewis begins exploring the house and stumbles upon Jonathan smashing a wall with an ax. Frightened, he runs away and stumbles upon multiple household objects coming to life. Jonathan confesses that he is a warlock and Florence is a witch. The house's previous owners were a sinister warlock named Isaac Izard and his equally wicked wife Selena, who had hidden a clock within the walls of the house before they died. Jonathan has been trying to find it and discover its purpose. Despite Jonathan’s discouragement, Lewis begins teaching himself magic.

On his first day at his new school, Lewis meets Tarby Corrigan, who befriends him in order to win an election for class president. When Tarby wins his election he abandons Lewis.
Lewis’s mother visits him in a dream. When she laments that Tarby does not see him as a friend, she suggests that he use a spell from a forbidden book to impress Tarby. So on Halloween night Lewis performs a necromancy spell in a cemetery, accidentally summoning the ghost of Isaac.
Lewis spies Isaac in the house of a neighbor, Mrs. Hanchett. He brings her to the house, but before he can find Jonathan, Isaac emerges. He reveals that Mrs. Hanchett is really Selena, who killed Mrs. Hanchett and took her place. It was also she who took the form of Lewis’ mother to persuade him to summon Isaac. Isaac explains that his hidden clock will turn time back so that humanity never existed. Florence, Jonathan, and Lewis run from the house.

Using the' Magic 8-Ball to learn the location of the clock under the boiler room, the three return, but Florence is sidelined, and the Izards transform Jonathan into a half baby-half adult. Lewis consults the Magic 8-Ball, which says "Say goodbye." He realizes he has to let go of the pain of losing his parents to harness his true power. He breaks the clock by dropping the ball into its gears; then, using his own magic, he blasts Isaac and Selena. They fall, de-age, and are ultimately erased from existence.
Lewis returns to school with more confidence, and gets revenge on Tarby and his friends by magically bouncing a basketball on their faces. At the end of the day, Jonathan and Florence are shown picking up Lewis, the three of them now like a regular family

Now, to be honest, I liked this moving.  It`s an amusing flick with a good mix of action and humour, and the kid isn`t annoying as in some other "small hero" movies.  Blachett though just seemed like a purple version of Galadriel, which was at time great, but at other times left me with a bit of a nagging feeling as it was just to obvious.

But all in all, a great film for some couch hanging.

Oh, bad kitty!!!!

Haul Report 161

Nothing to add this week...

Because christmas is coling, so expect a massive one next week!

In the meantime, enjoy some random cosplay picture...

Rohan versus Morannon: teaching Noshi MESBG batrep

It has been years since I played, but as Noshi wants to give MESBG a go, we knocked together a small game last evening at home.

Now, the game was loosely based on the Battle Companies, with a few modifications.

1. Instead of a Lieutenant and 2 Sergeants, we only each had a single hero each.  She had the Orc captain model to represent him, I used the Hama model.
2. While she had the Mordor list, she used Morannon Orcs.  This is due to their profiles being in the Pelennor fast play book, while the stats book of Middle Earth is still lying under the christmas tree until later this week.

Please not that this might be the very first time ever I played with unpainted models for the try-out, as it all are models that are in my pool for AHPC painting this year, except my Rohan archers who had been completed a few weeks ago.

Her warband as such had three warriors with shield, of which one was her Hero, two with spears, two with double handed weapon and two with orc bows.

Rohan fielded three warriors with shield of which one was the Hero, two with throwing spear and shield and two with bows.

We picked scenario two of the Battle Companies book, a Show of Strength, in which the hero needs to put down as many models as possible before one side breaks, being 5 models to loose for me, and 6 for her.

And I got to try out my Crisis bought Pworks The Valey 3 by 3 mat for the first time, in which we just reduced the deployment zones to 6 instead of 12 inch, but it fits the table perfectly.

Turn 1: Morannon Priority

Noshi took first priority, and started advancing her Orc force forward.  The Rohirrim did the same, one warrior bravely shielding his leader.  Some arrows whizzed to and fro, but without any effect.

Turn 2: Rohan Priority

Priority shifted to Rohan, and slow and steadily they advanced, the archers taking up position behind some low walls as the hero and the warriors pushed to the center.  The orcs where still out of reach, but closed the gap, and nothing more happened this turn.

Turn 3: Morannon Priority

The evil side got priority again, and the first charges where going to come in.  Two orcs charged my warrior and hero, and put them in combat.  In response, my third warrior and one with a throwing spear assaulted the orcs lurking behind the statue in the middle.

Shooting was ineffective, as Noshi did manage to hit but not wound her own soldier.  The fights where paired but no-one went down this round unfortunatly.

Turn 4: Rohan Priority

With most of the force locked in combat and the one archer who stood bravely his ground, more orcs charged in.  But first my second warrior with throwing spear hopped in the combat where my hero was in to even the odds.  The orc leader charged the archer duly, while his escorting warriors brought numbers to bear in the center.

The Orc hero swiftly took down the archer, and in response my hero, albeit with spending his Might point, brought down the warrior he faced. 

In that same scrum at the middle, the warrior with throwing spear was also knocked out of the game however...

This resulted in 1 kill each for both sides heroes, and my losses being heavier at the moment then the Morannon forces...

Turn 5: Morannon Priority

This might be the crucial turn, as both forces where now really slugging it out in the center and charges came in from all sides. The Orc hero joined the fray, and ganged up with a double hander on my warrior.  My hero was engaged by an orc with a spearorc as support.

In the resulting combat, my hero was taken out by the double hander, failing his Fate roll, making it impossible for me to score any additional points.  Noshi's leader took down the warrior with his Might point and scoring a scecong point as such.

We ended the game as a result here, because I couldn`t overtake her anymore, and it not being a campaign game we didn't need to get on for more experience or such, resulting in a Morannon victory.

The rules don`t seem to have changed that much since I last played... in 2004, and Noshi enjoyed the little game.  Of course, that means I`ll be painting a lot of Elves in the future, as that is the force she really would like to play with :-)